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Monday, June 6, 2016

For my last event I want to the UCLA Senior Art Show at
Broad Art Center. This was my favorite event that I got to attend because I
enjoyed seeing the art that students at UCLA created themselves and I think
that there is something very special about seeing the creations that my fellow
classmates have made. There was such a wide variety of artwork and it got me
thinking about the creativity that goes into each piece of work. All of the
projects were different than the next but when all the artwork was together in
the show room there was a sense of cohesiveness in the room, which I truly
appreciate. All the hard work that goes into creating the senior projects is
truly incredible.

My roommate is one of the artist that is featured within
this show room and I had the honor to help her out with her project by modeling
for her photographs and video. Through living with her and seeing this long
process of creating her senior project I have such an appreciation for all of
the artists. She is such a talented photographer and she has such a keen eye,
and I love all of the work that she has done. Her final project featured
sexuality and the elements of that within films and she did it in such a tastul
way creating a film and two adverstiement posters for the shows ‘Desperate
Housewives’ and ‘Masters of Sex’. I really enjoyed seeing the final product of what her vision
was and I was really happy to be a part of it.

A piece that I thought was very creative and caught my eye, because I am in fashion and design, was the clothing line that was created and put right in front when you walked into the art show. It instantly caught my eye and I thought it was a very interesting way of interpreting art and fashion. She creating dysfunctional sleeves on arts, a two-headed sweater, and I particularly loved the colors and patterns she chose.

Along with the clothes she had hanging there was a video to go along with it of her modeling the clothes she had designed. Another project that I liked was simple but that is why I liked it. The artists put molds of her feet, hands and used her own hair and made it look like she was buried under the floor so the only thing that you could see were the feel, hands and red hair. It was a bit creepy but I think that is why it caught my attention. Things that are out the ordinary are very intriguing to me and I really appreciated that project.

Other than the two projects that I mentioned above I was really moved by all the projects that reflected the artists personal life (heritage, race, gender, and beliefs). I think that there is something special about how people can express themselves through art and I think that this was shown within the gallery.

In regards to how pieces within the gallery relate to material taught within the class I think that some art pieces that go hand in hand about with what we talked about in lecture was an architecture piece that you could see when you walked in to the left of the gallery. It was created using 3D printing and involved both mathematics and robotics to create, which ties in week two and week three. I really loved coming to this event and being a part of it, it was a really special event for me.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

For my second even I attended a lecture by Angela Washko, at the UCLA Game Lab in Broad Art Center. I did not know what to expect when attending this lecture but I was blown away. This lecture was incredibly informative and moving because the topic was very heavy and in particular resonates with females and how we are put down by degrading statements view as sexy symbols.

To start off I want to give you a back ground of Angela Washko her self. She is an feminist activist, and research based artists that creates performances and videos based on feminism and pop culture. On top of her research and art she is a part time professor at Carnage Melon and appears on radio shows as well.

Her first project that she talked to us about in her lecture was about her World of War Craft (WOW) project. She began by explaining that she first started out playing WOW and that this is what lead her to art research projects. She played WOW for 10 years and after finding that the communication that was occurring on the game portal was very racists and sexists she created a counsel within the game where she started to ask questions about the communication that was occurring throughout the game between different gamers. Her findings were pretty shocking, but not surprising she said because of the anonymity of the game itself--people don't have a true identity and cannot be held accountable for their comments or actions within the game (no physical world).

So her mission was to create a safe place within WOW where people could be comfortable sharing their experiences and she took screen shots of these conversations to create an art project, and movement really. She collected discussion for four years and the conversations have began to improve she said.

Her second project that she told us about was pretty disgusting and sad. It is called BANGED, and with this project she attempted to get as many women to come forward and say they have slept with a man named, Daryush Valizaeh. She started this project because of what Daryush stands for repulsive and she wanted to spark a conversation about it. Daryush is a misogynist blogger who has made statements about females that include how he believes that rape on private property should be legal so women have 'learning experiences' and that he believes that men should never stop having sex with a women even if she says no, because deep down she wants it, and many other disturbing comments like that. After she had started her project she thought it would be a good idea to reach out to Daryush himself and she communicated with him for two months, following his rules, until she got to have a Skype conversation with him. This conversation lasted 2 hours and she recorded the whole entire thing. After all of her research of BANG (his books) and interviewing him she created a show room where you can find all their conversations, his books on display and their interview. Hearing the whole process she had to go through was mind blowing.

The portion of her lecture that I can connect back to the class is the Math + Art portion of the class because gaming and technology have a lot of math involved within it and creating a video game takes a lot of math to create something so complex and beautiful so I would have to say that that is what resonated most with the course material.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Space + Art As we come to the end of this quarter I think that Space is a very fitting ending topic to cover, as it ties together many of the topics that we have learned throughout the quarter. We have discussed the fundamentals and complexities of art and science which has created a solid foundation of what the arts are about. Space is a very interesting topic that has always interested me so I am really happy that this was the topic for our final week. To begin, take a look at our Solar System. It is so complex and hold many of the unknowns that we are trying to solve on Earth. Space is so enormous and complex it is often hard to fathom but it is because of this that we are all so interested and drawn to it. Many movies, books, and art pieces have been based on outer space and the unknowns about it. We have created stories and pictures of alien beings, black holes destroying planets, space journeys and much more. There is something so beautiful about space and to be it is its silents and stillness.

The fascination with space revolves around the concept of no gravity, planets unexplored and galaxies unseen. Many artists have revolved their art work around these concepts for example: Carl Sagas and Jeff Talman have based their art work off constellations in space. Here is an article about these two artists projects http://flavorwire.com/449482/cosmic-art-installations-inspired-by-space

These artists are from different eras but have created similar works.

Another thing to discuss about space is the technology that has gone into exploring space. We have created robots orbit through space, to walk on the moon, we have had man walk on the moon and driven robots on other inhabitable planets. Technology has allowed us to broaden our knowledge about what is out in space and what space will do for us in the future. These technological leaps have lead us to the new idea of colonizing mars and it wouldn't have been for the first people, during the mideval times, to go against normal beliefs and try to learn what was outside our planet Earth.

Monday, May 16, 2016

There were 2 experimental developments that put nanotechnology on the map:

1. A form of Carbon unknown to man

2. We had never been able to see individual atoms in real space--image or manipulate them and this was due to two things:a) scanning and tunneling micro and b)the buckyball

These developments have allowed for nano-products to be created like...

-L'oréal is one of the leading brands using nano-particles within their products.

-Sunscreen has many nano-particle components within it in order to protect us from UV rays.

-Even foods...

Courtesy of Noonday

The future of food some might say is using nano-particles to created exactly the food that you want. You can program the nano-particles to taste the way you want, to create edible wrappers, have chemical releasing properties so your taste certain flavors at certain times. It is pretty crazy what these nano-particles can do....and not only to food.

Nano-particles take place in nature, and for example this particular butterfly, the Blue Morpho, has nano-particles at its center which is what causes it to have a blue reflective wings.

Courtesy of Pintrest

This butterfly is a beautiful example of nano-particles at work.

Although there are many cool and great benefits to nanotechnology there are some dangers to be cautious of. For example, within the food manipulation it is good to be cautious with them because we do not know how our body processes these food, or even if they do at all and this can be very dangerous. Anytime you are putting chemicals and non-nature foods or items in your body people should be cautious

Although nano-particles are not necessarily good for humans in their food, make-up products, and clothing products they have helped tremendously in technological advances. It will be very interesting to see where nanotechnology will take us next.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Neuroscience has come a long way from the first individuals who attempted to understand what the brains functions were for.

Aristotle was one of the first individuals to look at the brain and its functions and he believed that "the seat of human thought and emotion was from the heart. And he believed that the main purpose of the brain was to cool the blood and thereby prevent the heart and lungs from overheating" (Neuroscience Pt.1 Lecture) It is so interesting how hundreds of years have gone by since Aristotle's initial ideas about the brain and we still do not know its full capabilities of functions. We know a lot more than we did before.

Courtesy of NGG, Greg Dunn

The brain is such a complex structure, which has been described by many people as a beautiful masterpiece. The way neurons connect to one another to create a perfect connection to get messages across to each other is simply amazing. Santiago Ramon y Cajal, a Spanish scientists and father of neuroscience called neurons the "mysterious butterflies of the soul" (Neuroscience Pt.1 Lecture)

Courtesy of Sebastian Kaulitzki

The most interesting thing about the brain to me is our subconscious mind and dreams. This interests me the most because it is as if our brain is its own person--it acts when it wants regardless of what the body is doing. Our brain is always going and thinking, even when we don't know it. Especially when dreaming we forget 90% of what we dream, what if you could remember everything what would happen?

Courtesy of Tim Bower

The brain is so complex it goes over my head, and is something so hard to grasp. Our brain is such a powerful tool that we often take for granted. The brain and the mind are creative, brilliant, inventive, sincere, and mysterious...What other thing has all these qualities that cannot be fully understood and comprehended? Neuroscience is at the forefront of science and art because of the multiple personalities and qualities that is has--it is a beautiful mystery everyone is trying to solve. References:

Sunday, May 8, 2016

:Described as an artists using or working with cells directly or having a collaboration with scientists.

Genetic Modification

Courtesy of University of Missouri. Photograph: Rex Features

Courtesy of YouTube: Leoapp1223

These animals have been genetically modified with the jelly fish genes that allow them to have glowing properties (genes). The Rabbit, which was discussed in the lecture is called GFP Bunny, who was inserted with a florescent gene while the bunny was a fertilized cell and it led to the "glowing bunny" seen above.

Although this is a huge scientific achievement it is very disturbing and crew to these animals. Genetic modification should not be practice as an art for or for fun--especially on animals. They should be treated just like humans and they shouldn't be projects for scientists or artists to test on.

This film, Gattaca, is an example of genetic modification and what can happen in a modern day society. People could have the ability to choose how smart they are, what they should look like, and how to control people...it is a scary concept to think about but if scientists continue to mess with genetic modification and engineering something like this could possibly happen.

Artistic Side

Genetic modification isn't all bad and harmful...many artists are transitioning out of the studio and into laboratories to work with living cells. Many artists are looking and working with tissues to create contemporary and beautiful art work. Here is an article that goes into more detail about Biotech Art: http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/18/biotechnology-as-art-form/

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

LACMA Rain Room

Connects technology with art—the
science and machinery that had to go into making this amazing art piece is a very complex and tasking. The rain room is a black room that has soothing and consistent rainfall occurring throughout
the room. The when you walking into the rain itself though it stops falling right where you are standing due to the 3D sensors that are put in place on the ceiling. This show at LACMA gives you a sense of the unrealistic aspects of nature...You get to control the rain with your body movements. The show gives you a sense of calmness and peace while giving you control and power over something mother nature usually dictates.

It is an incredible experience to be surrounded by rain and the visuals are something you wont forget. Since the room is black they use bright lights so you can see all the raindrops… it is as if you are almost in a dream. You cannot see anything in your periphery when you are in there it is just you, and what seems like a walk that will never end due to the black surroundings and the sounds, and visuals of the rain. This show is used for many different things for leisure, for photography, for self expression through dance, and much more and it is something so magical everyone should experience it.

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Racked

Courtesy of Sirens and Scoundrels

The rain room is an escape from the real world for 15 minutes and it is hard to wrap your head around what you are actually experiencing the whole time you are in there you feel like it is never going to end and I know I didn't want it to.